World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the Warcraft fantasy universe. World of Warcraft takes place within the Warcraft world of Azeroth, approximately four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard's previous Warcraft release, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. The game was announced in 2001, and was released for the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise on November 23, 2004. Since launch, World of Warcraft has had eight major expansion packs produced for it: The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor, Legion and Battle for Azeroth, and Shadowlands.
World of Warcraft was the world's most popular MMORPG by player count of nearly 10 million in 2009.The game had a total of over a hundred million registered accounts by 2014. By 2017, the game had grossed over $9.23 billion in revenue, making it one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time.
World of Warcraft has been around for 14 years, and the new Battle for Azeroth marks the seventh major expansion in that long history. As the MMO that put the genre - and the successful formula - on the map, WoW has remained a constant in the PC gaming scene, but it's felt a little wayward as of late. Thankfully, Battle of Azeroth gets back to the war-making roots of the Warcraft franchise, making for some of the best questlines and more elaborate locations we've seen in WoW lore. Its new approach to loot certainly needs some work, but everything else is a move in the right direction for this old MMO dog.
